English

diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

s have undergone many changes since the Old and Middle English periods. The sound changes discussed here involved at least one phoneme which historically was a diphthong.

Old English

Old English diphthongs could be short or long. Both kinds arose from

sound change In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chan ...

s occurring in Old English itself, although the long forms sometimes also developed from

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

diphthongs. They were mostly of the height-harmonic type (both elements at the same

height Height is measure of vertical distance, either vertical extent (how "tall" something or someone is) or vertical position (how "high" a point is). For an example of vertical extent, "This basketball player is 7 foot 1 inches in height." For an e ...

) with the second element further

back The human back, also called the dorsum (: dorsa), is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral c ...

than the first. The set of diphthongs that occurred depended on

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

(and their exact pronunciation is in any case uncertain). Typical diphthongs are considered to have been as follows: * high, fully backing, , spelt (found in Anglian dialects, but merged into in

Late West Saxon Late or LATE may refer to: Everyday usage * Tardy, or late, not being on time * Late (or the late) may refer to a person who is dead Music * ''Late'' (The 77s album), 2000 * Late (Alvin Batiste album), 1993 * Late!, a pseudonym used by Dave Groh ...

) * high, narrower, possibly , spelt (found in Late West Saxon) * mid, , spelt * low, , spelt As with

monophthong A monophthong ( ) is a pure vowel sound, or one whose articulation at beginning and end is relatively fixed, with the tongue moving neither up nor down and neither forward nor backward towards a new position of articulation. A monophthong can be ...

s, the length of the diphthongs was not indicated in spelling, but in modern editions of OE texts the long forms are often written with a macron: , , , . In the transition from Old to Middle English, all of these diphthongs generally merged with monophthongs.

Middle English

Development of new diphthongs

Although the Old English diphthongs merged into monophthongs, Middle English began to develop a new set of diphthongs. Many of these came about through vocalization of the

palatal approximant The voiced palatal approximant is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ; the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic notation i ...

(usually from an earlier ) or the labio-velar approximant (sometimes from an earlier

voiced velar fricative The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in most varieties of Modern English but existed in Old English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents ...

), when they followed a vowel. For example: * OE ''dæg'' ("day") and ''weg'' ("way") (where the had been palatalized to ) became and * OE ''clawu'' ("claw") and ''lagu'' ("law") became and Diphthongs also arose as a result of vowel breaking before (which had allophones and in this position – for the subsequent disappearance of these sounds, see ''h''-loss). For example: * OE ''streht'' ("straight") became * OE ''þoht'' ("thought") became The diphthongs that developed by these processes also came to be used in many

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

s, particularly those from

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th Middle English phonology (diphthong equivalents).

''Vein–vain'' merger

Early Middle English had two separate diphthongs and . The vowel was typically represented orthographically with "ei" or "ey", and the vowel was typically represented orthographically with "ai" or "ay". These came to be

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

, perhaps by the fourteenth century. The merger is reflected in all dialects of present-day English. In early Middle English, before the merger, ''way'' and ''day'', which came from Old English ''weġ'' and ''dæġ'' had and respectively. Similarly, ''vein'' and ''vain'' (borrowings from French) were pronounced differently as and . After the merger, ''vein'' and ''vain'' were

homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...

s, and ''way'' and ''day'' rhymed. The merged vowel was a diphthong, something like or . Later (around the 1800s) this diphthong would merge in most dialects with the monophthong of words like ''pane'' in the ''pane–pain'' merger.

Late Middle English

The English of southeastern England around 1400 had seven diphthongs, of which three ended in : * as in ''boil'', ''destroy'', ''coin'', ''join'' * as in ''nail'', ''day'', ''whey'' (the product of the ''vein–vain'' merger) * as in ''joy'', ''noise'', ''royal'', ''coy'' and four ended in : * as in ''view'', ''new'', ''due'', ''use'', ''lute'', ''suit'', ''adieu'' (the product of a merger of earlier and , and incorporating French loans that originally had ) * as in ''few'', ''dew'', ''ewe'', ''shrewd'', ''neuter'', ''beauty'' * as in ''low'', ''soul'' * as in ''cause'', ''law'', ''salt'', ''change'', ''chamber'', ''psalm'', ''half'', ''dance'', ''aunt''. Typical spellings are as in the examples above. The spellings ''eu'' and ''ew'' are both and , and the spellings ''oi'' and ''oy'' are used for both and . The most common words with ''ew'' pronounced were ''dew'', ''few'', ''hew'', ''lewd'', ''mew'', ''newt'', ''pewter'', ''sew'', ''shew'' (''show''), ''shrew'', ''shrewd'' and ''strew''. Words in which was commonly used included ''boil'', ''coin'', ''destroy'', ''join'', ''moist'', ''point'', ''poison'', ''soil'', ''spoil'', ''Troy'', ''turmoil'' and ''voice'', although there was significant variation.

Modern English

16th century

By the mid-16th century, the

Great Vowel Shift The Great Vowel Shift was a series of English phonology, pronunciation changes in the vowels of the English language that took place primarily between the 1400s and 1600s (the transition period from Middle English to Early Modern English), begi ...

had created two new diphthongs out of the former long close monophthongs and of Middle English. The diphthongs were as in ''tide'', and as in ''house''. Thus, the English of south-eastern England could then have had nine diphthongs. By the late 16th century, the inventory of diphthongs had been reduced as a result of several developments, all of which took place in the mid-to-late 16th century: * merged into and so ''dew'' and ''due'' became homophones. * (from the ''vein–vain'' merger) became monophthongized and merged with the of words like ''name'' (which before the Great Vowel Shift had been long ). For more information, see ''pane–pain'' merger, below. ** For a time, many speakers had an monophthong in ''pain'' distinct from an monophthong in ''pane''. * , as in ''cause'', became monophthongized to , later raising to modern . * , as in ''low'', was monophthongized to That would later rise to , which merged with the vowel of ''toe''; see ''toe–tow'' merger, below. That left , , , and as the diphthongs of south-eastern England.

17th century

By the late 17th century, these further developments had taken place in the dialect of south-eastern England: * The falling diphthong of ''due'' and ''dew'' changed to a rising diphthong, which became the sequence . The change did not occur in all dialects, however; see

Yod-dropping The phonological history of English includes various changes in the phonology of consonant clusters. H-cluster reductions The H-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, involving conso ...

. * The diphthongs and of ''tide'' and ''house'' widened to and , respectively. * The diphthong merged into ~. Contemporary literature had frequent rhymes such as ''Mind''–''join'd'' in Congreve, ''join''–''line'' in Pope, ''child''–''spoil'd'' in Swift, ''toils''–''smiles'' in Dryden. The present-day pronunciations with in the ''oi'' words result from regional variants, which had always had , rather than , perhaps because of influence by the spelling. The changes above caused only the diphthongs , and to remain.

Later developments

In the 18th century or later, the monophthongs (the products of the ''pane''–''pain'' and ''toe''–''tow'' mergers) became diphthongal in Standard English. That produced the vowels and . In RP, the starting point of the latter diphthong has now become more centralized and is commonly written . RP has also developed centering diphthongs , , , as a result of breaking before /r/ and the loss of when it is not followed by another vowel (see English-language vowel changes before historic ). They occur in words like ''near'', ''square'' and ''cure''. Present-day RP is thus normally analyzed as having eight diphthongs: the five closing diphthongs , , , , (of ''face'', ''goat'', ''price'', ''mouth'' and ''choice'') and the three centering diphthongs , , . General American does not have the centering diphthongs (at least, not as independent phonemes). For more information, see English phonology (vowels).

Variation in present-day English

''Coil''–''curl'' merger

The ''coil''–''curl'' or ''oil''–''earl'' merger is a vowel merger that historically occurred in some non-rhotic dialects of American English, making both and become . This is strongly associated with

New York City English New York City English, or Metropolitan New York English, is a regional dialect of American English spoken primarily in New York City and some of its surrounding metropolitan area. Along with Southern American English, it has been described by ...

and New Orleans English, but only the latter has any modern presence of the feature.

''Cot''–''coat'' merger

The ''cot''–''coat'' merger is a phenomenon exhibited by some speakers of Zulu English in which the phonemes and are not distinguished, making "cot" and "coat" homophones. Zulu English often also has a cot-caught merger, so that sets like "cot", "caught" and "coat" can be homophones. This merger can also be found in some broad

Central Belt The Central Belt of Scotland is the Demographics of Scotland, area of highest population density within Scotland. Depending on the definition used, it has a population of between 2.4 and 4.2 million (the country's total was around 5.4 million in ...

Scottish English Scottish English is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard English may be defined ...

accents. The merger of both sounds into is standard in Central Scots.

''Line''–''loin'' merger

The ''line''–''loin'' merger is a merger between the diphthongs and that occurs in some accents of Southern

English English The English language spoken and written in England encompasses a diverse range of accents and dialects. The language forms part of the broader British English, along with other varieties in the United Kingdom. Terms used to refer to the E ...

Hiberno-English Hiberno-English or Irish English (IrE), also formerly sometimes called Anglo-Irish, is the set of dialects of English native to the island of Ireland. In both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, English is the first language in e ...

, Newfoundland English, and

Caribbean English Caribbean English (CE, CarE) is a set of dialects of the English language which are spoken in the Caribbean and most countries on the Caribbean coasts of Central America and South America. Caribbean English is influenced by, but is distinct to ...

. Pairs like ''line'' and ''loin'', ''bile'' and ''boil'', ''imply'' and ''employ'' are homophones in merging accents.

Long mid mergers

The earliest stage of

Early Modern English Early Modern English (sometimes abbreviated EModEFor example, or EMnE) or Early New English (ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transit ...

had a contrast between the long mid monophthongs (as in ''pane'' and ''toe'' respectively) and the diphthongs (as in ''pain'' and ''tow'' respectively). In the vast majority of

Modern English Modern English, sometimes called New English (NE) or present-day English (PDE) as opposed to Middle and Old English, is the form of the English language that has been spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England England is a Count ...

accents these have been merged, so that the pairs ''pane''–''pain'' and ''toe''–''tow'' are homophones. These mergers are grouped together by Wells as the long mid mergers. All accents with the ''pane–pain'' merger have the ''toe–tow'' merger and vice versa.

''Pane''–''pain'' merger

The ''pane''–''pain'' merger is a merger of the long mid monophthong and the diphthong that occurs in most dialects of English. In the vast majority of Modern English accents, the vowels have been merged; whether the outcome is monophthongal or diphthongal depends on the accent. However, in a few regional accents, including some in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

, South

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

, and even

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

and older Maine accents, the merger has not gone through (at least not completely) and so pairs like ''pane''-''pain'' are distinct. A distinction, with the ''pane'' words pronounced with and the ''pain'' words pronounced with , survived in Norfolk English into the 20th century. Trudgill describes the disappearance of the distinction in Norfolk: "This disappearance was being effected by the gradual and variable transfer of lexical items from the set of to the set of as part of dedialectalisation process, the end-point of which will soon be (a few speakers even today maintain a vestigial and variable distinction) the complete merger of the two lexical sets under — the completion of a slow process of lexical diffusion." Walters (2001) reports the survival of the distinction in the

Welsh English Welsh English comprises the dialects of English spoken by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh language, Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. In addition to the distinctive words and grammar, ...

spoken in the Rhondda Valley, with in the ''pane'' words and in the ''pain'' words. In accents that preserve the distinction, the phoneme is usually represented by the spellings ''ai'', ''ay'', ''ei'' and ''ey'' as in ''day'', ''play'', ''rain'', ''pain'', ''maid'', ''rein'', ''they'' etc. and the phoneme is usually represented by ''aCe'' as in ''pane'', ''plane'', ''lane'', ''late'' etc. and sometimes by ''é'' and ''e'' as in ''re'', ''café'', ''Santa Fe'' etc.

''Toe''–''tow'' merger

The ''toe''–''tow'' merger is a merger of the

vowels (as in ''toe'') and (as in ''tow'') that occurs in most dialects of English. (The vowels in Middle English and at the beginning of the Early Modern English period were and respectively, and they shifted in the second phase of the

.) The merger occurs in the vast majority of Modern English accents; whether the outcome is monophthongal or diphthongal depends on the accent. The traditional phonetic transcription for

General American General American English, known in linguistics simply as General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm), is the umbrella accent of American English used by a majority of Americans, encompassing a continuum rather than a single unified accent. ...

and earlier

Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent of British English regarded as the Standard language, standard one, carrying the highest Prestige (sociolinguistics), social prestige, since as late as the beginning of the 2 ...

in the 20th century is , a diphthong. But in a few regional accents, including some in

Northern England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...

South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...

and

, the merger has not gone through (at least not completely), so that pairs like ''toe'' and ''tow'', ''moan'' and ''mown'', ''groan'' and ''grown'', ''sole'' and ''soul'', ''throne'' and ''thrown'' are distinct. In 19th century England, the distinction was still very widespread; the main areas with the merger were in the northern Home Counties and parts of the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

. The distinction is most often preserved in East Anglian accents, especially in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

Peter Trudgill Peter Trudgill, ( ; born 7 November 1943) is an English sociolinguist, academic and author. Biography Trudgill was born in Norwich, England, and grew up in the area of Thorpe St Andrew. He attended the City of Norwich School from 1955. T ...

discusses this distinction, and states that "...until very recently, all Norfolk English speakers consistently and automatically maintained the nose-knows distinction... In the 1940s and 1950s, it was therefore a totally unremarkable feature of Norfolk English shared by all speakers, and therefore of no salience whatsoever." In a 2002 investigation into the English of the Fens, young people in west Norfolk were found to be maintaining the distinction, with back or in the ''toe'' set and central in the ''tow'' set, with the latter but not the former showing the influence of

Estuary English Estuary English is an English accent, continuum of accents, or continuum of accent features associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary, including London, since the late 20th century. In 2000, the phonetician John C. We ...

. Walters reports the survival of the distinction in the

spoken in the Rhondda Valley, with in the ''toe'' words and in the ''tow'' words. Reports of Maine English in the 1970s reported a similar ''toad-towed'' distinction among older speakers, but was lost in subsequent generations. In accents that preserve the distinction, the phoneme descended from Early Modern English is usually represented by the spellings ''ou'', and ''ow'' as in ''soul'', ''dough'', ''tow'', ''know'', ''though'' etc. or through

L-vocalization ''L''-vocalization, in linguistics, is a process by which a lateral approximant sound such as , or, perhaps more often, velarized , is replaced by a vowel or a semivowel. Types There are two types of ''l''-vocalization: * A labiovelar approxi ...

as in ''bolt'', ''cold'', ''folk'', ''roll'' etc., while that descended from Early Modern English is usually represented by ''oa'', ''oe'', or ''oCe'' as in ''boat'', ''road'', ''toe'', ''doe'', ''home'', ''hose'', ''go'', ''tone'' etc.

''Mare''–''mayor'' merger

The ''mare''–''mayor'' merger occurs in

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

and the

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

— Baltimore dialect, and among scattered other American English speakers. The process has bisyllabic pronounced with a centering diphthong as in in many words. Such varieties pronounce ''mayor'' as , homophonous with ''mare''.

North American English North American English (NAmE) encompasses the English language as spoken in both the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar ...

accents with the merger allow it to affect also sequences without since some words with the sequence merge with , which is associated with

/æ/ tensing The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase of the ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are ...

before

nasal consonant In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majo ...

s. The best-known examples are ''mayonnaise'' (), ''crayon'' , and ''Graham'' (, a homophone of ''gram'').

''Pride''–''proud'' merger

The ''pride''–''proud'' merger is a merger of the diphthongs and before voiced consonants into monophthongal occurring for some speakers of

African American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians. Having its own unique grammatical, voca ...

; making ''pride'' and ''proud'', ''dine'' and ''down'', ''find'' and ''found'', etc. homophones. Some speakers with this merger may also have the rod–ride merger hence having a three–way merger of , and before voiced consonants, making ''pride'', ''prod'', and ''proud'' and ''find'', ''found'' and ''fond'' homophones.

''Rod''–''ride'' merger

The ''rod''–''ride'' merger is a merger of and occurring for some speakers of

, in which ''rod'' and ''ride'' are merged as . Some other speakers may keep the contrast, so that ''rod'' is and ''ride'' is . This is similar to an earlier sound change where

*ai shifted to

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''ā''.

Smoothing of

Smoothing In statistics and image processing, to smooth a data set is to create an approximating function that attempts to capture important patterns in the data, while leaving out noise or other fine-scale structures/rapid phenomena. In smoothing, the d ...

of is a process that occurs in many varieties of

where bisyllabic becomes the triphthong in certain words with . As a result, "scientific" is pronounced with three syllables and "science" is pronounced with one syllable.Wells, Joh
"Wells: Whatever happened to received pronunciation?"
Author's webpage; accessed 19 April 2011.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * {{History of English Splits and mergers in English phonology English phonology History of the English language